


wishing down wells

by halfwheeze



Series: Ironhusbands Bingo 2019 (Round 1) [12]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Companion Piece, M/M, No Dialogue, POV James Rhodes, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, nsfw themes and references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:41:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21824575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: james rhodes has been in love with tony stark most his life.he's learning how to love someone else now.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson - one sided, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Sam Wilson, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark - one sided
Series: Ironhusbands Bingo 2019 (Round 1) [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1327991
Comments: 8
Kudos: 50
Collections: Ironhusbands Bingo 2019





	wishing down wells

**Author's Note:**

> Ironhusbands Square I4: Wish

It’s different waking up in bed with someone. 

He did it a lot when he was younger, wanting to make the world fade away, wanting to make himself fade until he didn’t want the things he wanted anymore. Waking up with Sam isn’t bad. The Falcon plasters himself to his back, curls around Rhodey like a mismatched pair of parentheses and keeps him warm all night long. Neither of them really wanted each other like this at first. 

It starts with hickeys on Tony’s neck, a supersoldier arm thrown around it haphazardly, it started with  _ burning hurt.  _ Rhodey remembers the first time he saw one of the hickeys, dark purple and barely healing yet, remembers nearly breaking a glass in his hand. Sam had taken the glass, set it on the counter and led Rhodey out of the kitchen carefully, as if he himself was made of glass. Sam had braced both hands on the side of Rhodey’s face carefully, held him to the world like he was going to float away, and Rhodey had cried. It was the first time he had cried in front of someone that wasn’t Tony since he lived with his mom, and maybe that’s why none of his relationships have ever worked. 

Sam holds him together, careful, and Rhodey does his best to do the same back. 

He doesn’t realise that Sam is in love with Barnes until he catches Sam looking at the bruises on Tony’s neck with envy, with something hot like jealousy. He holds Sam close and lets him cry after that. They don’t talk about it, but they both know. 

The first kiss is Sam’s lips on his, an attempt to swallow him whole after a press conference during which Tony held Bucky’s hand under the table. They start seeing each other after that, but only really because Steve saw the kiss and it would be worse to explain  _ that  _ away than a relationship. He doesn’t know what Sam tells everyone about their relationship, but Rhodey doesn’t really have to say a word about it. There’s something unapproachable about a decorated United States Air Force Colonel with a War Machine suit that Rhodey isn’t going to dissuade by letting people talk to him. He’s a nice enough guy, but it’s much easier to just copout of questions. 

Sam is a decorated officer of the Air Force too, but no one is ready to talk about that. 

They’ve been dating for about a month when Tony gets kidnapped. The fact that Rhodey doesn’t leave fucking immediately is a mix of Ross and Sam, and then it’s that Barnes is off with the wind and they can’t afford to be down another man. It’s been two days since Tony was taken when Barnes comes back covered in blood and carrying Tony like some wartorn princess bride, but Tony is alive and that’s all that fucking matters. When he visits Tony in the hospital room that reminds him too much of when Tony came home from Afghanistan (Tony was never supposed to go overseas, just Rhodey, only Rhodey was supposed to go to war) Sam wraps around Rhodey’s back like he does when they sleep together, comforting and careful and so tactile that it keeps Rhodey on the ground. 

Sam keeps him from flying away a lot these days. 

Barnes is wrapped around Tony in ways that make Rhodey burn with jealousy, but he feels a little better when he sets his hands on Sam’s, just looking at Tony instead of his guard dog. He knows that Sam is feeling it too, just looking at Barnes protecting someone else like this, so Rhodey leans back a little, lets Sam hold him a little closer, feel him a little more. They’re both hurting right now. 

He wishes it didn’t have to be this way, but if he’s going to be with anyone else, he’s glad it’s Sam. 

When they leave the hospital room, Sam kisses him delicately in the elevator. It’s the softest that they’ve ever kissed, usually going at each other angrily and like they’ll never get the chance to do it again, and Rhodey aches. Sam always knows exactly what he needs, and right now, Rhodey needs to be coddled, carefully taken against someone else’s skin and held there to warm. They take the elevator up to Sam’s floor, because of course the hospital wing of the Avengers tower is the only place for Tony to be, and they settle against the sheets, kissing carefully, mapping each other out like they’ve never seen each other before, let alone been allowed to touch. 

His hand against Sam’s skin doesn’t have the contrast that Rhodey used to imagine against Tony’s, but it’s just as warm, and much more welcomed. 

When Sam fucks him, it’s almost delicate. Rhodey loses himself in how careful Sam is, in how much he makes sure that Rhodey is cared for, the sure slide of his hips. The pull of the tide in his bed, slow and yet insistent, enough to wear the shine from stones and the delicacy from Rhodey’s own exterior. 

It feels like they’re actually together when Rhodey wakes up, and he doesn’t know what to do with that at all. When Sam wakes up, he kisses Rhodey on the forehead like that is something that they do, and then he’s up for the day. He makes Rhodey breakfast and watches him eat it, making sure that he takes care of himself like sometimes Rhodey is not wont to do. No one has ever made sure that Rhodey has done anything; he was the older brother, the caretaking friend of Tony Stark, the manager rather than the managed. When he’s done, Sam kisses him softly again and still does not move him to speak, instead taking his dishes to wash them. Rhodey feels as if he’s swallowed his own heart. 

Sam takes care of him, and it’s the single most terrified that he’s ever been. 

He hopes Barnes takes care of Tony too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Um. Writing this hurt me more than it hurt you?
> 
> Kudos and comment!
> 
> Yell at me @primekent on tumblr.


End file.
